Dubai Siblings Offer JioHotstar Domain to Reliance as Merger Nears

Dubai siblings Jainam and Jivika Jain, who recently acquired the controversial JioHotstar domain, have made a surprising offer to Reliance Industries. Both have announced their plans to hand over the domain to Reliance without charge.

The siblings, in a conversation with Firstpost, clarified that they thought it best to “pass on” the domain to Reliance in the bigger picture scheme of things, and that it was a decision taken by them independently without any pressure from either Reliance or anyone else.

Dubai Siblings Offer JioHotstar Domain to Reliance for Free as Merger Nears

The brothers, aged 13 and 10, claimed they bought the domain to help an app developer in Delhi and had never intended to sell it at a profit. They said they have been approached numerous times with offers for the domain, but that they did not foresee any controversy and did not desire it. They reiterated that the domain was not for sale, and if Reliance was interested, they were willing to transfer it smoothly.

With ₹1 crore being the asking price for the domain name, JioHotstar domain by an anonymous app developer to pay off his executive MBA degree at Cambridge University, the trouble started. This domain was bought by the developer just days before the merger of Jio Cinema and Hotstar, was confirmed. Reliance had however refused the offer and subsequently, the developer sold the domain to Jain siblings who said that they purchased it as part of being helpful to others.

Reliance Industries and Disney’s India operations merger is also expected to receive approval soon with a new entity likely to emerge under the name Jio Star. The combination is expected to be completed early next week and the two companies plan to merge shortly thereafter. The combined company will also have a new co-CEO team, among other leadership changes. Merging of Disney+ Hotstar will most probably lead to Scrapping and bring some major sporting events like IPL under the coverage.

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